alw@po.CWRU.Edu (Alice L. Withaar) (03/23/91)
Article 2533 of cwru.ins.general:
>Newsgroups: cwru.ins.general
Path: usenet.ins.cwru.edu!po.CWRU.Edu!pdj2
From: pdj2@po.CWRU.Edu (Peter D. Junger)
Subject: INS hoist by its own petard
Message-ID: <1991Mar21.124538.7489@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>
Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: cwns6.ins.cwru.edu
Reply-To: pdj2@po.CWRU.Edu (Peter D. Junger)
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 91 12:45:38 GMT
Lines: 134
It would be laughable, were it not so serious. INS, which so
solemnly assures us that it would never let us see the source code for
the suite of Stanford programs (programs that include the TCPIP and MH
software), because that would violate the license agreement with
Stanford, has blatantly violated the copyright and license agreement
relating to the Clarkson packet drivers by _failing to give us the
source code to those programs_.
As you will recall, INS removed a posting by Christopher J.
Seline on this bulletin board that contained source code demonstrating
how one can access the packet drivers that control the ethernet boards
in the DOS machines that are connected to CWRUnet (as well as those
connected to any other ethernet network). What INS found particularly
objectionable was the fact that this program showed how to cause the
packet driver to "remove or change the source address on the Ethernet
packet."
Now, the fact is--and INS doesn't deny this--that the
information contained in Seline's source code is publicly available.
INS just wants to make it difficult for us to obtain this public
information. So I got to thinking about where one could most easily
find this information, and the obvious place is: _in the source code
for the packet drivers._
Now the packet driver that INS gave me for use in the PS/2 50z
in my office (which is equipped with a 3c523 ethernet board) is the
3c523 packet driver written by Russ Nelson and it--and its source
code--are available by anonymous FTP from sun.soe.clarkson.edu. So I
went and snarfed the source code for the 3c523 packet driver (which is
packaged together with the executables and source code for all of Russ
Nelson's other packet drivers--including the AT&T packet driver that INS
has distributed for use in many, perhaps all, of the AT&T and Zenith
machines here on campus--and many useful utilities besides, including
one that allows the user "to get/set the packet driver address"). And
that source code said that
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation, version 1.... You
should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
But INS had not given me a copy of the GNU--the `G' in GNU is
pronounced, GNU is an acronym derived from the recursive statement
"GNU's Not Unix"--General Public License. But I had heard of the GNU
license--it's quite famous--and anyway it turned out that the package I
had obtained from sun.soe.clarkson.edu included the license in a file
named COPYING.DOC. The GNU license, among other provisions, permits you
to freely copy and distribute a program subject to that license, but
only if you "accompany it with the complete corresponding
machine-readable source code." But INS had not given me the source code
when they gave me the program.
Now I could just not believe that INS would actually violate the
license and the University's rule forbidding the use of its computing
resources to "copy privately-owned or licensed software ... without
prior written approval," especially since a violation of the license
would lead automatically to a revocation of INS's right to make use of
the packet drivers. So I checked with Russ Nelson to see if packet
drivers really were subject to the GNU license and, if they were,
whether he had given INS an exemption.
And here's Nelson's reply:
--------------------Reply from Nelson to PDJ-------------------------------
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Date: Mon, 18 Mar 91 11:25:41 EST
From: Russ Nelson <nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
Message-Id: <9103181625.AA14553@sun.soe.clarkson.edu>
To: pdj2@po.cwru.edu
Cc: cjs@po.cwru.edu, snx6@po.cwru.edu
In-Reply-To: "Peter D. Junger"'s message of 17 Mar 91 15:02:37 EST <9103172005.AA08767@po.CWRU.Edu>
Subject: Gnu Software License and packet drivers
Reply-To: "aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET" <nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu>
Before I go on the warpath, I just want to confirm that the Clarkson
Packet Drivers are subject to the Gnu Software License and that no
exemption from the requirement of supplying source code for the drivers
has been granted to the Information Network Services ("INS") of Case
Western Reserve University.
No such exception has been (or would be) granted.
INS gave me a copy of 3c523.com with no source code and without the
information that I was entitled to the source code.
That violates the copyright. BTW, you may be interested in seeing a message
I received from someone at CWRU, and my reply to it.
-russ
To: edguer@alpha.ces.cwru.edu
In-reply-to: Aydin Edguer's message of Fri, 15 Mar 91 21:33:27 -0500 <9103160233.AA20429@charlie.CES.CWRU.Edu>
Subject: Clarkson Packet drivers
Reply-to: nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu (aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET)
I understand that release 9.X of the Clarkson packet drivers
will include a utility to *change* the Ethernet address used. As a
utility with such a high capacity for abuse, may I ask why it is being
distributed?
It's always been there, it was just broken in the 8.x (and maybe 7.x, I
haven't checked) release. I agree that it can be abused.
-russ
--------------------End of Reply from Nelson to PDJ---------------------
So there you have it. INS in its efforts to suppress publicly
available information has violated the University's rules that forbid
the unauthorized copying of software and has violated Russ Nelson's
copyright in the packet driver's. INS should, of course, immediately
stop using, copying, and distributing the packet drivers. (We to whom
INS gave the packet drivers, on the other hand, are OK, so long as we
don't violate the license agreement.) But how they can straighten out
their past violations is beyond me, though clearly their first step must
be to make their peace with Russ Nelson.
Peter D. Junger
Professor of Law
--
Peter D. Junger--CWRU Law School--pdj2
JUNGER@CWRU.bitnet
JUNGER@CWRU.CWRU.EDU.internetittai@shemesh.GBA.NYU.EDU (Ittai Hershman) (03/23/91)
Since CWRU gives you network access, and the drivers are publically
available on the network, it seems to me that they certainly have
made the source available (i.e. just FTP it from clarkson). As far
as I know, there is no proscribed packaging or unpackaging required
by the GPL.
-Ittai
PS: Can we keep local squabbling off general netnews/mailing-list
distributions, please.nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson) (03/23/91)
In article <1991Mar22.203343.12931@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> alw@po.CWRU.Edu (Alice L. Withaar) writes:
It would be laughable, were it not so serious. INS, which so
solemnly assures us that it would never let us see the source code for
the suite of Stanford programs (programs that include the TCPIP and MH
software), because that would violate the license agreement with
Stanford, has blatantly violated the copyright and license agreement
relating to the Clarkson packet drivers by _failing to give us the
source code to those programs_.
[ This definitely belongs on the TCP/IP mailing list, because it covers
copyright issues on a network. How do you ensure that all network users
and administrators abide by the copyright on a piece of software? -russ]
You should be aware that we here at Clarkson also "fail to" give our users the
source code to the packet drivers. It's impossible to include the entire
text of the GNU General Public License. So, the copyright refers to the
COPYING file for the full details.
I think you only have a case if your INS *refused* to give you the source
or *refused* tell you how to get it.
--
--russ <nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu> I'm proud to be a humble Quaker.
It's better to get mugged than to live a life of fear -- Freeman Dyson
I joined the League for Programming Freedom, and I hope you'll join too.